How much snow fell in Loveland? Say, 19 inches (slide show added)

Weather-watcher network fills in blank

Loveland's total snowfall from a three-day storm that moved in Monday was a hair over 19 inches.

That figure shows in data collected from home-based stations of the Colorado Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network.

And, since the National Weather Service doesn't keep good track of snow depth totals, it's the best number available to people who want to know.

The volunteer network has scores of amateur weather stations scattered around Larimer County, and the breadth of its data offers a pretty clear picture of what the storm brought.

And, two of those backyard stations in Loveland belong to professional meteorologists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder. "I think it's a pretty good number," said Chris Knoetgen, also a National Weather Service co-op observer, who lives exactly two miles north of Lake Loveland.

"I have a snowboard in a place that's unaffected by wind and other factors, and that's what I use."

Knoetgen measured 19.2 inches of snow from the storm, amounting to 1.92 inches of water.

An NCAR colleague, Joe Grim, measured 19.3 inches of snow at his station in southeast Loveland.

This month is on track to compete as the coolest and wettest April in local weather history, with low temperatures setting daily records on several occasions during the first half of the month.

For the first 17 days of April, Knoetgen's station has recorded 20.7 inches of snow and 2.54 inches of total moisture. Normal numbers for the entire month are 3.8 inches of snow, and 2.16 inches of moisture.

"Good snowstorm!" Knoetgen wrote in an email with his weather stats. "We needed it. We may have another one coming on Sunday night."

Ashley Tobias, left, and her son Aleczander Ramirez, 4, chat with Bill Burgoyne after stopping to check out the dinosaur show sculpture he built outside his home near First Street and Dotsero Avenue in Loveland. Burgoyne said the sculpture took about five hours to complete and is of a stegosaurus which is Colorado's state fossil.
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Steve Stoner
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